Right now in my little town book shop I’ve seen this emergence of these brightly colored red/white/black posters screaming Indie Bound. I figured since I’m Indie, with an organic interest, I wanted to know more. I mean, anything Indie I get get behind.

In case you’re unfamiliar … Indie Bound is this: A small organization that moves consumers to find small, local shops and encourages a person to opt to spend their money there as opposed to big box stores (a la your local bookstore over B&N). And the kicker is, the movement is truly geared towards books. While Indie Bound does list shops from clothes to bikes and nearly everything niche market in-between, Indie Bound appears to have a sweet spot for books.

I then found what is called Indie Next … a list of best selling Indie Books.

PERFECT.

I was really juiced up over this for all the obvious reasons. That was, until I started playing around on the site …

While Indie Bound is still all about small Ma & Pa shops, the books they have on their “Indie Next” list are … um … anything but Indie. Here is the list:

WILD (published by Knopf)

THE COVE: A NOVEL (published by Ecco)

THE BOOK OF JONAS (published by Blue Rider Press)

SACRE BLEU (published by William Morrow)

ANGELMAKER (published by Knopf)

THE GODS OF GOTHEM (published by Putnam)

Are you catching a reoccurring theme happening here? None of these novels … not a single one … is the work of an Indie Author.

These books, touted as Best Selling works of Indies are actually just another best selling list from publishers. Bah!

When I took this to the Kindleboards, I was told by another writer that “Indie was once how “small publishers” referred to themselves” … and I suppose, maybe if this was 10 years ago, I could agree.

But is that was Indie is anymore? I don’t necessarily agree.

In my mind, Indie means “DYI” … it means you’re the one who does the work, makes 70% of your sales and there is no publisher giving you an advance or sharing in your royalties. To me, big 6 or small press, you’re trade published.

So, we’ve talked and talked and talked about self publishing becoming the “new” publishing, like pink becoming the “new” black. And, we’ve all probably assumed that along the way to this brave new future we’d pick up some key players who were once published traditionally … but who saw this one coming?!

When I was about nineteen I went through this really smutty phase. Along with novels like She’s Come Undone and Backroads, I also purchased Jackie Collins novels (mostly on tape because her british-y accent lulled me to sleep at night) and Dannielle Steel. Now, I wouldn’t call Steel’s novels smutty, they’re more the warm & fuzzy sort of read with an add water recipe of romance … but Collins, yeah, she’s a little lascivious. All the sex, death and mayhem one could possibly want.

Needless to say, I was a fan of her Lucky character and the sickly delicious, totally salacious Hollywood inspired novels. They only got better for me when Collins fessed up that yeah, they were inspired by true and not-so-true events. “Yum!” said the gossip girl lurking inside my soul.

While I’ve retired most of my Collins cassettes to the .25 cent table at my garage sale, I still have the utmost respect for a writer who can be so wickedly good.

Collins is a good writer. She’s had blockbuster success with her stories, but she’s also smart. It’s pretty impressive to see a writer who has a long standing career acknowledge, full on, that things are actually changing. She’s not trying to pull punches or talk into fancy industry lingo, she’s just telling the truth. You have to respect her and her balls on that one. While she’s not totally turning off the lights on her trade career, it’s exciting to see her venturing that big toe into the self-pub game.

Obviously, lightning doesn’t strike twice since, yeah, it’s 9 and I’m blogging … but last night, a miracle, I was asleep at 9 o’clock. Not falling asleep … not watching TV and trying to sleep … actually, full blown, dead ass out like a light.

The last time I went to bed at 9, it was probably 2010, it was before I had a book-baby, before I decided to become one of those people who can casually mention they trained themselves to go on four hours of sleep a night. In 2011, bedtime was always around the witching hour and for the most part, I’m always up before the sun. So, you can imagine my joy when I literally passed out so early … then, a real miracle, I woke up before the alarm.

All day I thought about the things I’ve given up over the past year, sleep being one of the many things. And it’s almost amazing how little I miss those things until, like a full nights REM sleep, I rediscover them.

Okay … now I need to go back to writing In The After … just thought I’d share a very random thought with ya’ll.

Maybe you’re a bibliophile. Maybe you love the idea of rare, incredibly expensive novels lining the wooden shelves of your library. Maybe you have money to burn. Or, maybe you’re just ridiculous.

Yesterday I was cruising around on Amazon, checking out my book, my ranking, my reviews when I noticed a few online vendors had picked up The Milestone Tapes for their stores. Amazing! I was excited, so I clicked on the list. 99% were normal, prices were average for print. Then … I came upon Invise.

Apparently Invise (with it’s 92% satisfaction rating) has decided my book is worth … make sure you’re sitting down when you read this … $888.00 + tax + shipping. I had to laugh. If you buy a book for damn near $900.00 you can’t even get free shipping? COME ON!

But in all seriousness … I think this is probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen a lot of stupid in my day!). NO ONE should ever pay that much for my book … and I’m almost embarrassed a seller has the balls to ask for that price.

I don’t know how Invise came up with this price … but however they did, they should really, really consider figuring out another method.

Enid is the author of The Spinsters Vow, a brilliant twist to a classic. Enid graciously agreed to dissect the 99th page of her novel for our reading enjoyment!

A Woman of Wit

Thank you Ashley for hosting me today. Ashley has given me a fun subject to blog about. She asked me to pick the 99th page of any of my nine novels to talk about.

I’ve chosen my latest historical romance “The Spinster’s Vow: Mrs. Darcy’s Journal to Love”. The 99th page featured a heated argument between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, about Wickham. In this Pride and Prejudice-inspired story, Mr. Wickham was in fact the heir to Longbourn and a cousin of Elizabeth. Here is an excerpt:

I did not like his raised voice, and so I retorted, “How am I to know? He is my cousin!”

“Whom you have only known for a day!” Mr. Darcy said.

“I have only known you for a short duration, as well!” I replied.

“Have I done anything, during our short acquaintance, to make you doubt my integrity?”

“I still do not know you well!”

“You believed that I took away his inheritance – something entitled to him – took it from a childhood friend of mine, no less? And left him at the mercy of others?”

“Mr. Wickham was very charming. He sounded altogether sincere when he related the circumstances to me.”

Mr. Darcy’s eyes flashed. “Suspicion certainly does not seem to be within your inclination.”

“Are you accusing me of ignorance?” My voice raised another notch, as well.

“I thought I had found a woman of wit as my partner for life.”

“Now you accuse me of being a simpleton?”

In this refashioning of Jane Austen’s classic, Mr. Bennet had gone missing. Mr. Darcy met a melancholic but spirited Elizabeth Bennet who had vowed to remain a spinster until she found her father.

A debauchery at a masquerade forced the couple to marry. Misunderstanding ensued and it took the couple a journey across the continent to search for Elizabeth’s father before they realised their love for each other.

I hope you like this new take of P&P. Comment below to have a chance to win an ebook version of The Spinter’s Vow. Tell me about your witty partner. Contest opens to worldwide readers and closes on 30 April

******

Author Bio

Enid Wilson loves sexy romance. Her writing career began with a daily newspaper, writing educational advice for students. She then branched out into writing marketing materials and advertising copy. She loves food, travel and tennis.

Enid’s novels has been ranked in the top 50 best-selling historical romances on Amazon USA, the top 30 best-selling Regency romances on Amazon Canada, the top 21 romantic short stories on Amazon UK and the top 39 British mysteries on Amazon. Enid loves to hear from her readers. Visit her at www.enidwilson.com

So, there is no such thing as the Easter Bunny. I figured this out when my mom told me the same was true about Santa and the Tooth Fairy. Bummer. I mean … who doesn’t love the idea of a giant rabbit running around leaving candy? But, it’s true … he doesn’t exist.

However, in the spirit of getting goodies I’ve decided to do something I haven’t done thus far … for one day only I am making The Milestone Tapes free for my readers and followers. I’m the Easter Bunny this year!

From today (4/8) through tomorrow (4/9) The Milestone Tapes will cost you nada via Smashwords if you use the coupon code YR98A to make your purchase.

Enjoy your holiday and snag a copy currently ranking in at a full 5 stars on Amazon and a respectable 4.8 stars on Goodreads!

I’ve been, maybe, the worst blogger in the history of the world. I apologize (it feel’s like I’m always saying “sorry” here … sorry for that!) …

I just returned from a trip out west, the place where it all started for me. 365 days I stood on Rialto Beach and said “it’s time to figure my life out and live it authentically.” I knew what that meant, where I needed to go and what I needed to do … now, I’m published. It was a crazy year, but the accumulation of it couldn’t have been more justified … I needed to stand there again and feel the completion, the accomplishment.

Today, I turn 29. The first year of writing has come and gone so quickly, I don’t really know whether to celebrate or cry because it was an amazing year, and I know I’ll never go back. I’ll be that innocent again, or at things so simply. It feels like I grew into this so quickly.

But here’s what’s crazy.

The day I turned 28, I decided to write a novel … the day I turn 29, I have an article about that novel feeding out of World News. I don’t know if it gets better than that … it was a fluke of timing or the natural unfolding of things. But either way, it’s amazing.